West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-03

| DC dDSOlUINls
A great deal of fish and other
kinds of food is badly and wasteful-
| ly cooked in consequence of the
prevalence of false theory of fry
inc. 1t is evident that many domes-
tic cooks mot hotel or restaurant
cooks) have q vague idea that the
metal plate forming the bottom Of
the frying pan should directly con-
vey the heat of the fire to the fried
substance, and that the bit of butter
or lard or dripping put into the pan
is used to prevent the fish from
sticking to it or to add to the rich
ness of the~fsh by smearing its sur
face.
The fact is that the melted fat
cooks by connection of heat just as
water does in the boiling of meat.
The fish, etc, should be completely
immersed in bath Of melted fat or
oil, and the turning over demanded
by the greased-plate theory is un-
necessary. Well educated cooks
understand this distinctly, and use
deeper vessel than our common
frying pan, charge this with guam
tity of fat sufficient to cover the fish,
which is simply laid upon a wire
support or frying basket, and left in
the hot fat until the browning of its
surface, or of the -four or bread
crumbs with which it is coated, in
dicates the sulliciency of the cook
cry.
At first sight the deep fat bath
appears extravagant, as compared
with the practice Of greasing the
bottom of the pan with little dab
of fat, but you can easily prove the
contrary by cooking weighed
quantity of any kind of fish or cut
let, etc, in a weighed quantity Of
fat used as bath, then weighing
the fat that remains and subtracting
the latter weight from the first, to
determine the quantity consumed.
If the frying be properly performed,
and the quantity compared with
that which is consumed by the
method of merely greasing the pan
bottom, the hath frying will be
proved to be the more economical as
we'll as the more efficient method.
The reason of this is simply that
much or ail of the fat is burnt and
wasted when only Il thin film is
spread on the bottom of the pan,
while no such waste occurs when
the bath of fat is properly used.
The temperature at which the disso-
citation of fat commences j. below
that required for delicately brown
inc the surface Of the fish itself, or
of the flour or bread crumbs, and
therefore no fat Is burnt away from
the bath, as it is by the overheated
portions of 4 merely CREASED trying
pan, and as regards the quantity
adhering to the fish itself this may
be reduced to minimum by with
drawing it from the bath when the
whole is uniformly at the maximum
cooking temperature, and allowing
the fluid fat to drain Off at once. 1t
may be supposed that by complete
immersion Of the fish in the fat bath,
more fat will soak into it, but such
is not the case. The water amidst
the lbres of the fish is boiling and
driving out steam so rapidly that no
fat can enter if the heat be well
maintained to the last moment. and
the irving not continued too long.
When cooked on the creased plate
one side is necessarily cooling and
the fat settling down into the fish to
occupy the pores left vacuous by the
condensing steam, while the other is
being heated from below.
The temperature Of the fat-bath
may be tested by the ordinary
cooks method, that of throwing into
it Il small piece of bread-crumb,
about the size of 4 nut. If it f'rizzles
and produces large bubbles of steam,
the full temperature Of frying in hot
test of fat is reached: if it frizzles
slightly, and only give out small
steam-bubbles, you have the temp
crature demanded for slow frying.
Gouffe, the famous French chef,
says: Fat Is the best for frying;
the light-colored dripping Of roast
meat and the fat taken off broth arc
to be preferred. These failing, beef
suet, chopped fine and melted down
on slow fire, without browning,
will do very well; when the bottom
of the stew-pan can be seen through
the suet it is sufficiently melted" "
He is no advocate for lard, "as it
always leaves an unpleasant coating
of fat on whatever is fried in it. :"
Olive oil Of the best quality is al
most absolutely tasteless, and hav.
ing as high boiling point as ami
NAL fat. it is the best Of all frying
media. In this country there is
a prejudice against the use of such
I oil.
When limbs are broken off trees
smooth the part with a knife and
cover it with soft grating wax, so
as to exclude the air, and they will